Humorless Prudes go after Tom ‘n Jerry

You know, I don’t “hate” anyone, really…but I’m coming close to hating these sorts of humorless prudes:

They chase each other at high speed wielding axes and hammers. But the famous cartoon duo of Tom and Jerry are in trouble in Britain for smoking on screen.

A channel airing the cartoons has agreed to cut scenes that glamorize smoking after British media regulator Ofcom received a complaint from a viewer who took offence at two episodes. [Emphasis mine]

In the first, “Texas Tom,” the hapless cat Tom tries to impress a feline female by rolling a cigarette, lighting it and smoking it with one hand. In the second, “Tennis Chumps,” Tom’s opponent in a match smokes a large cigar.

One priss makes noise about a smoke and they cave. Next someone will say “Jerry stuffs Tom in a bottle; my children might be encouraged to do that, too – edit the thing,” and it will be done.

I’ve disliked these sorts for a long time. A while back I was asked who I thought was screwing up America, and I wrote:

1) Whoever decided that Saturday morning cartoons should be used to “educate children” to “be nice” to each other, and that Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, if shown at all, could not be shown being shot, blown-up, erased, squeezed into tiny spaces, sent flying from a cannon, played like violins, dropped into glasses of water, blown to smithereens by Martians, unfeathered unto nakedness, or tricked into playing “Believe Me If All (Those Endearing Young Charms)” correctly on the piano, thus being sent to heaven wherein they wear halos and pluck on tiny harps. They can, however, be shown in drag. Whole generations are growing up being thought of as too delicate to watch cartoon characters being shaped into musical instruments, and they’ve lost exposure to thinking outside the box.

Yeah. Better they watch a cartoon of people loving each other all the time. Because that’s reality.